Kathleen Williams enters Montana ExpoPark in Great Falls on a Monday when the state fair is in full swing but the bigger crowds have yet to arrive.

It’s a typical day of campaigning, her election staff says, with three to four stops to meet with the public and rally volunteers and shore up supporters complete with an overnight stay with friends who don’t mind also having her dog, a female German wirehair pointer named Danni, as a guest.

Early the next day it’s on to the McLaughlin Research Institute in Great Falls, where she talks about bio-research with officials, tours a portion of the facility and says hello to summer interns. Then it’s to Fort Benton and Havre, with other stops along the way still being planned.

Later in the week, she stopped at Three Forks to stand with the Boilermakers Local #D239 workers locked out of the Imerys Talc factory. The company has proposed phasing out the retiree health care plan and freezing pension benefits.

While at the fair, Williams, the Democratic contender for the state’s lone U.S. House of Representatives seat, first goes to the Cascade County Democratic Central Committee booth where she talks with members, some of them running for office as well.

After a few minutes, she walks across the aisle where she shakes hands with folks sitting at the Cascade County Republican Central Committee booth and introduces herself.

The 57-year-old Williams walks around the fair for a while, chatting with passersby and vendors.

“I want to get those idiots out of there,” one man says to her curtly, as he offers his support while he ambles down the aisle.

“I like her,” Anita Jones, who is hawking essential oils, says. “She has the same issues that I have.”

“She is just personable and down to Earth,” adds coworker Ashley Peterson.

Williams, with two staff members in tow, then heads to downtown Great Falls to the Democratic headquarters, where several dozen people, volunteers who will hang signs, knock on doors and work booths are gathered.

She’s running against the incumbent, Republican Greg Gianforte, a multimedia high-tech entrepreneur who has been in office since May 2017, and Libertarian Elinor Swanson, who is an attorney.

During the drive to Great Falls she chats with staff about calls to donors to be made, rallies and meeting times and dates to be cemented.

She talks about herself at the rally.

“If I am able to bring hope back to you it’s my honor,” she says. “You’re part of my campaign.”

It‘s during this stop, like many others, that she outlines her campaign goals that include health care, fostering opportunities in the state and protecting the environment and Montana’s outdoor heritage, returning civil dialogue and rebuilding America’s place in the world.

After her speech and firing up the crowd, Judy Schlepp gets her ear.

Schlepp says afterward that Congress needs new blood.

“We need some fresh faces and we need some women,” she said, noting that Montana has not had a woman serve in Congress since Jeannette Rankin, a Republican who first served nearly 100 years ago.

Schlepp said she and Williams talked about the rising costs of insurance and other topics.

“She’s into those issues and I’m into her,” Schlepp said.

It's a short walk to the Mighty Mo Brewing Co. across the street, where she meets with more supporters and some who are curious.

One of them was Erik Somerfeld of Power, who grows malt barley.

“I threw a softball (question) at her first and asked what did she know about the Farm Bill,” Somerfeld said soon afterward. “She knew the problems … which is good.”

Somerfeld followed that with questions about trade, saying she understood that as well and the Montana-specific problems.

So did she get his vote?

“She had it, but I wanted to make sure she knew what was going on and what as important,” he said. “She was good at answering questions.”

Williams said traveling throughout the state is the “hallmark” of her campaign.

“If I am going to run to represent an entire state I have to go out and meet an entire state,” she said. “You cannot learn about the issues you need to know about unless you get out there.”

Williams, a former state lawmaker, touts a 34-year career in natural resources in the public, private and non-profit sectors. She served three terms in the state Legislature.
She was born at Letterman Army Hospital in San Francisco, came to Montana in the mid-1990s and worked in various state government departments including Environmental Quality Council and the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The biography on her campaign website notes she served as vice chair on the agriculture and taxation committees.

She served on the Governor’s Drought Committee and the Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission. She says she “worked to advance an Earned Income Tax Credit in 2013, which passed in 2015.”

She also got a bill passed which she said ensured coverage of crucial routine cancer treatments while allowing patient participation in innovative clinical trials.

The stop at McLaughlin was personal for Williams, her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at 49. Kathleen, who was 11 at the time, helped her father in taking care of her mother who died eight years later.

One of her campaign commercials recalls those times.

“I will be the strongest champion for Medicare and Social Security that Montana has ever seen,” she says in the commercial.

She talks to McLaughlin folks about helping with the costs of prescription drugs. They talk to her about their work with Parkinson’s Disease and their overall mission.
Williams says she hears the most about health care while on the campaign trail.

She said she knows of families who pay $2,000 a month for insurance plus have a $7,000 deductible.

She said people are concerned about the stability of Medicare.

Other than that, she said she hears about the outdoors, a lack of civility in politics and a broken Congress.

Williams won over four other candidates in the June primary. David Parker, an associate political science professor at Montana State University, said Williams, who had about $300,000 in her campaign war chest, was “outspent 2-1” by the two candidates, but yet emerged the victor. Parker said he often tells his students “You don’t need the most money to win, but you have to have enough and you have to spend it right.”

Parker said at the time that financing her campaign is her major challenge.

He described Williams as an experienced candidate, who, because she has run for office before, understands the dynamics. He said the primary helped sharpen her skills going into the fall general election.

Williams recently reported her campaign raised more than $2.1 million in the third quarter of 2018. Her staff noted there were 13,961 unique donors who pitched in from July 1 to September 30 and that 77 percent of contributions were less than $100.

Endorsements so far for Williams include Emily’s List, Montana Conservation Voters, Montana AFL-CIO, The National Organization for Women PAC, Montana Carpenters Local 82 (Great Falls) and Montana State Council of Professional Fire Fighters.

According to the biography posted on her website, she graduated with a bachelor’s of science degree in resource economics from U.C. Berkeley, and from Colorado State University with an master’s of science degree in recreation resources.

Her plans for health care include vowing to protect Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. She says her plan for health care will stabilize the individual market and move to truly universal coverage.

Williams wants to reinstate payments to insurers and individuals to keep the cost of individual plans down, making Children Health Insurance Program and the federal rural health center fund a permanent part of the health care system. And she also calls to lift restriction that prevents Medicare from bargaining for drug prices.

In terms of tax policy, her website says she wants to address the increasing income disparity in Montana and nationwide. She wants to fix and simplify President Donald J. Trump’s federal tax reform bill by restoring progressive taxes to the federal code and fixing mistakes resulting from the hasty passage of the bill.

She supports a woman’s right to choose. She believes in access to affordable contraception and proper education on its use should be expanded. Williams believes schools should teach scientifically based sex education.

She also believes women and families should have affordable day care, health care and programs to reduce poverty and domestic violence.

Williams supports equal pay for equal work and creating high-paying jobs. She also believes in climate change and will work on common-sense measures that cut greenhouse gas emissions and bolster economic growth.

When it comes to education, she promises to make sure federal funds go to public schools, have transparent, fair and affordable federal student grants and loans and fulfill federal special education funding commitments to state and local governments.

She is opposed to unaffordable entrance fees at national parks, so that the outdoors remain accessible to all.

Williams said she also opposes Republican Sen. Seve Daines’ and Gianforte’s bills to “release Wilderness Study Areas by legislative fiat, rather than through public processes like forest plan revisions.”

Kathleen Williams(Photo: Courtesy/Andrew Markoff)

She told the Associated Press in July if elected she would not support Nancy Pelosi as the party's leader in the House, saying the "hyper-partisan" atmosphere pervading Congress needs to be changed by installing new leaders for both major parties.

Also posted on her website is a February speech she made at a candidates forum in Missoula.

She talks about Montana being the first place that ever felt like home and where she met, Tom Pick, who she describes as the love of her life. They were married at the state capitol in 2001.

In 2016, they decided they would tour the country, working on water projects. Five days later he collapsed while skiing and could not be revived.

A victory in November would mean a return to Washington for Williams.

She was there years ago as an intern with the Public Interest Economics Foundation. Some days she would take a path home that would bring her through the National Zoo.

One time she was running late on her walk and found herself locked inside the zoo.

She decided to climb a fence to get out. A passing motorist was heard to yell “The animals are escaping.”